Viral video we've all seen gets taken down over mom's copyright lawsuit

Updated 12:11 pm, Friday, October 11, 2013

A mother in California learned the hard way three years ago that someone can copy an adorable YouTube video off of your video account and make big bucks. Now she's suing in federal court.

According to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco by Butte County resident Ashley Candler and her lawyer Naomi Jane Gray, a woman named Shannon Carter stole a video of Candler's son playing in the bathtub with some family pets and posted it as her own on her sweetfacesjc YouTube channel.

Candler posted the minute-long video on Jan. 12, 2011, and the next day, Jan. 13, Carter posted the video on her own channel as "Bath Time Fun" and even said that the child in the video was her own nephew.

They aren't even related.

Making matters worse, the video racked up nearly 69 million views. Carter monetized the video through YouTube once it went massively viral, meaning that the wrong person was making money off of it.

It's possible that Carter has made thousands of dollars off the video, which Candler accuses her of stealing.

Don't think you can make money off a YouTube clip of a child in the bath playing with a dog? According to Celebrity Networth, the BlueXephos channel -- which covers online gaming -- has made nearly $7 million with over 960 million views of their clips.

Once a video gets a certain amount of views, YouTube will email you and offer to make you a "partner" in exchange for them adding commercials to your clip. You make cash off the residuals.

"Bath Time Fun" went viral within days of its posting and was featured on net aggregation sites all over the planet. In May 2013, Candler and her lawyers sent a DMCA take down notice to YouTube to relay to Carter. It was taken down within days by YouTube, but Carter has already signed off on third-party sites to use the clip, making them a part of Carter's copyright infringement.

Candler is asking for a jury trial in her lawsuit, and appropriate damages, costs, and attorneys fees related to this case.

This morning, the video couldn't be found on Carter's YouTube channel, but you can see it on Candler's channel still.